Carrie Fisher, 1956-2016

Carrie Fisher, the actress who brought Princess Leia to life and reprised the role in last year's The Force Awakens, has died at the age of 60.

The sad news
follows word that Fisher suffered cardiac arrest while flying to Los
Angeles on Friday. After landing and being rushed to a hospital, her
brother issued a statement indicating that Fisher was "stable."

Fisher's Hollywood career skyrocketed after
her first young portrayal of Leia. She was 19 during the filming, though
her Hollywood acting debut actually came in 1975's Shampoo—and
her Hollywood indoctrination began even before that, thanks to a
tumultuous LA childhood that she wrote and spoke about at length in the
form of memoirs and one-woman shows.

After a continued successful movie career
through the '80s, Fisher became a more prominent writer than actor. In
addition to the aforementioned memoirs, Fisher racked up work as a script doctor (largely uncredited at the time) for films such as Hook, Sister Act, Scream 3, and even the Star Wars prequels. (An image of her dialogue notes on the Empire Strikes Back script recently went viral.) Her public efforts in the '90s and beyond were more devoted to battling the public stigma of mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder.

Fisher is survived by her mother, Debbie
Reynolds, her daughter, Billie Lourd, and the bulldog at her side for
most of her recent public appearances, Gary. While the official news
says otherwise, we still believe there is some chance that Fisher drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.